Eric Wetlaufer – Tips on Surviving Those Early Business Years

If you have a young business then you will know only too well that these early years are going to be all about survival. Personally speaking I have failed with 2 businesses here in Wesson and I am currently in the process of beginning my 3rd, so I understand your challenge. To help me improve my chances, I had a chat with my good friend Eric Wetlaufer who has been running successful businesses for many years, to get some tips on how to ensure my business will be successful this time around, and here is some advice which he gave.

Contacts

The company that you keep is a very important aspect of business and Eric was very keen to stress just how important contacts are. Eric tells me that the ability to create relationships and maintain them will be important throughout your years in business, and you should always look to court the most important people that you know, and get them on your speed dial or list of email contacts.

Prioritizing

Eric spoke to me at great length about the fact that so many business owners get into the world of business and then lose sight of the most important aspects of business. The most important areas of the business are the customer, the quality of the product and the service, and these should be where any business owners places the highest focus. When a business owner loses sight of these areas of the business, they are bound to lose.

Understanding the Market

Eric tells me that if you fail to understand what the market is doing you will lose. He uses the example of John Cussack’s character in High Fidelity here, a record store owner when no body wants records, Eric jokingly says that had this film been made right now, Cussack wouldn’t be overrun with customers as vinyl has since made a comeback. The point he is trying to make here is that customer trends move and change, and a business should change in line with them.

Staffing

My buddy places a huge amount of focus within his business when it comes to recruitment and says that if you are able to get the right person the first time, you will be doing very well indeed. Many employers don’t invest the right amount of time on recruitment and whilst it is likely that you will only have a small team in your early years, they should still be the right time. As Eric alludes to, hiring, training, firing and retraining can be both costly and time consuming, so investing the time and energy from the beginning is going to be the best way that you get the best people through your doors from the outset.

For Eric, these are the cornerstones of business, and if you employ them, you may just find the success that you are after.